Mines Historical Society Ltd.

Newsletter No. 155 July 2015

A New Logo! The masthead of this Newsletter displays, for the first time, a new version of theWirksworth Miner logo that has been used by the Society throughout most of recorded history... This new drawing has been created by the Society’s Conservation Officer, Adam Russell, specifically for use on the new Society website, which is rapidly approaching its final stages of development before it is ready to be unleashed onto an unsuspecting world. However, as you see, I managed to steal a copy of it to use first! I would like to thank Adam for his work on this, and I hope you, as members of the Society, will appreciate and value it. Steve Thompson The 2015 AGM and Social Gathering The Data Protection Act 1998 The 2015 Annual General Meeting and Social A Summary of the Society’s Policy Gathering will be held on Saturday the 14th of The Society needs to keep personal information about November 2015 at the Peak District Mining Museum its members to ensure the smooth running of the Society. in Matlock Bath. Following the success of last year’s This includes your name and address, and, (if you have new-style event we will be retaining the same format provided them,) your telephone number(s) and e-mail for the event this year, and we hope that many members address. We also keep a record of your subscription will once again attend to participate and enjoy. payments, including any Gift Aid donations. The Annual General Meeting will take place at 12:00, We use this information:– followed by an informal Buffet Lunch at 13:00. a) to check that your membership is up to date and At 14:30 the afternoon programme of entertainment will remind you when renewal is due; commence, which we intend to consist of the traditional b) to distribute the Newsletter and Bulletin (‘Mining mixture of illustrated talks, film shows, etc. History’); Finalised details, including the cost of the buffet, the c) to keep you up to date with news of events and menu, and details of the afternoon entertainment, will activities associated with the Society; be published in the October issue of the Newsletter, d) to claim recovery of Gift Aid payments from HMRC. together with a booking form for you to use. To prevent members’ personal data being used for direct Robin Hall marketing, we do not disclose this information to any third parties, and we do not publish a membership list. Membership Renewal 2015 - 2016 We do not collect or hold any information about a Members are reminded that their membership will be member’s racial or ethnic origin, their political opinions, due for renewal on the 1st of September 2015. religious beliefs, trade union membership, health, sexual orientation or criminal record, information defined in the Subscriptions for 2015 - 2016 are as follows:­ Data Protection Act as ‘sensitive personal data’. Individual Member: £21.00 We may from time to time collect the names of members Joint Members: £23.00 and guests attending meetings and field trips:– Family Members: £25.00 a) for safety (to ensure everyone is accounted for at the Institutional Member: £27.00 end of a trip); b) to determine the popularity of events, and thus assist A Membership Renewal Form is included with this with planning our programme of future events. Newsletter, please respond promptly. You can also pay your subscription by Bank Transfer, using the Any member may request a copy of the information that Membership Number on your Newsletter mailing label the Society holds about him or her: such requests should as reference. Please confirm your renewal by email to be made in writing to the Membership Secretary, Peak [email protected] and [email protected]. District Mining Museum, Grand Pavilion, Matlock Bath, Matlock, DE4 3NR. Please enclose a stamped self- Please refer to the Renewal Form for full details. addressed envelope. Keith Gregory Steve Thompson, Hon. Secretary 1 Meets List: Summer - Autumn 2015 5: Heritage Walk – The Bonsall Moor Area Please Note: If you would like to come along on any Tuesday 19th August 2015. Leader: Tony Wood, meet of these meets it would be helpful if you could please at 7.00pm at Park Bottom, Bonsall phone, text or email the leader, it is useful to know how A walk which will take us up Boiling Pot Lane and up many are planning to attend, and how many will be onto Dig Leys, from here we will head out towards the wanting food afterwards. Thank you. Hollow Church Way lime kiln and the Romano British 1: Heritage Walk – The Crich Mining Field settlement. After a stop here we will head over the top of Sugar Lumps quarry and out to the old town piece, Tuesday 7th July 2015. Leader: Tony Wood, meet following various paths and tracks from here will bring 7.00pm at the Cliff Inn, Crich. us back to the start of the walk. On this walk we will make a long-awaited revisit to this Optional buffet afterwards at the Kings Head, Bonsall. interesting mining field. We will be taking a look at the sites of Jingler, Wakebridge, Smiths Adit, Glory and Old 6: Heritage Walk – Wirksworth and its End Mines, and looking at the course of Ridgeway and History Fritchley soughs. Tuesday 1st September 2015. Leader Tony Wood, meet Optional buffet afterwards at the Cliff Inn, Crich. at 7.00pm in the Lime Kiln car park. 2: Training Session, Devonshire Cavern, A walk that will take us around the town of Wirksworth Matlock Bath to look at where the various trades and public houses were once located. We will also take a look at the Tuesday 14th July 2015. Organiser: Paul Chandler, Barmote Court building. meet 7.15pm at the Peak District Lead Mining Museum, Matlock Bath. Please park elsewhere. Optional food and drink at the Lime Kiln afterwards. Training session involving SRT (Single Rope Technique) 7: Heritage Day 2015 – and flexible ladder climbing, aimed at novices. SRT Sheldon involves two techniques; Prussic for ascent and Abseil This year’s Heritage day will be held at the Magpie for descent. You will require an SRT kit, spare kits will Mine Sheldon on Sunday the 12th of September 2015. be brought along for you to examine and to have a go if Anyone who is willing to help out on the day, either by you do not have your own. In addition, there will be an guiding visitors around the mine, helping make tea and opportunity to climb up & down a flexible wire ladder. coffee, or helping with car park parking please contact To reach the training area involves easy, dry passage of Tony Wood. Any help would be gratefully appreciated. mainly walking or stooping size. Party size is limited and booking is essential. Observers welcome. Optional 8: Arrock Black Marble Mine, Ashford drink afterwards in the Midland Hotel, Matlock Bath. and Cracknowl Wood Mine Level, Ashford To book your place please contact Paul Chandler, Northside contact details are below. Tuesday 15th September 2015. Leader: Paul Chandler, 3: Heritage Walk – Masson Hill meet 7.15pm Ashford village, park near the church. Tuesday 21st July 2015. Leader: Tony Wood, meet Cracknowl Wood Mine Level will be visited first. The 7.00pm at the car park at the top of the Clatterway level is relatively short, but of interest. It is an easy grade, dry trip. A short, crawly entrance passage leads to A walk which will take us over Masson Hill looking at a walking size passage, with an optional climb at the end mines such as Dark Holes, Primrose, the Great Masson of the level. Reference: Society Newsletter No.141. Cavern, High Loft, Dale, King, & Gentlewomen’s. Arrock Black Marble Mine is an easy grade, dry trip. Optional food and drink at the Kings Head, Bonsall There is a short, low crawl near the entrance which leads afterwards. into the main part of the mine. The remainder of the 4: Training Session, Devonshire Cavern, mine is mainly walking or stooping size. Matlock Bath Arrock is quite different to the Rookery Black Marble Sunday 26th July 2015. Organiser: Paul Chandler, meet Mine nearby, in that timber has been used to support 10.00am at the Peak District Lead Mining Museum, the roof, some of which, you might say, has seen better Matlock Bath. Please park elsewhere. days! Although less extensive than the Rookery Mine, it is arguably more interesting. Party size is not limited, Details are the same as the 14th July, except that you but booking by contacting Paul Chandler is advisable. should bring a packed lunch if you intend to stay all day. The Society’s Training Co-ordinator Martin Long will Optional drink afterwards in the Bulls Head, Ashford. also be in attendance. Party size is limited and booking Access by is permission of the Chatsworth Estate. essential. Observers are welcome. Reference: “ Black Marble” by J M To book your place please contact Paul Chandler. Tomlinson (PDMHS Special Publication No 4, 1996). 2 9: Holmebank Chert Mine, Bakewell Trip Report Wednesday 30th September 2015. Leader: Paul Hanging Flat Mine, Middleton Dale Chandler, meet 7.15pm Holme Lane, Bakewell, parking on the lane. Wednesday 15th April 2015, Leader Paul Chandler This is an easy grade, dry trip, unless you fancy a paddle Wow, what a fantastic attendance of Society members or swim in the flooded levels! It consists of mostly large and guests, shown in the group photograph below! walking or stooping size passages and easy scrambles. The mine is quite extensive, with around five miles of passages! The popular through trip is planned, from the quarry to the lower main entrance, with various points of interest en-route. These include: New Year Pot, the only natural bit in the mine, various mine artifacts, including a single and a double seater (Intrigued? then come along!), flooded levels, a pile of shoes, etc. An interesting mine, and well worth bringing a camera. Party size is not limited, but booking is advisable by contacting Paul. Optional drink afterwards in Bakewell. Access by permission of Oldfield Design, Bakewell, who request an optional donation of £2 per person to the Alzheimer’s Society. The group assembled ready for the trip. Left to right: Fay Hartley, Bill Morley, George Duszczak, Reference: Mining History Vol.13, No. 5 (1998). Ann Wilson, Helen Shaw, Marie Naylor, Linda Morley, Forthcoming Meets Vicky Bell, Martin Harvey, Kevin Stokes, Sid Harvey, Keith Turner and Tom Collins. Mouldridge Mine, Pikehall. An evening trip on Photo: Paul Chandler Tuesday 13th October 2015. Leader: Paul Chandler. After posing for the group photograph we entered the Alderley Edge Copper Mines, Cheshire. Sunday mine, sliding down through the low entrance into a 18th October 2015. Organiser: Paul Chandler. Visits, roomy passage. A short distance along this passage we courtesy of the Derbyshire Caving Club, are planned to came to a junction, and at this point the party split into Wood Mine, Cobalt Mine and a couple of smaller mines. two. One group explored the large passage ahead while Wapping Mine, Matlock Bath. An evening trip on the others followed a passage to the right, the two groups Tuesday 27th October 2015. Leader: Paul Chandler. swapped over afterwards. Both these passages are only quite short, so there were no route finding problems, A series of evening walks and underground meets will although as there is an open 40ft deep shaft in the be arranged through October and November; these and floor towards the end of the right hand passage, care is the forthcoming meets will be listed on the Society’s required! website and in the October Newsletter in due course. The mine was worked for fluorspar in late 1970s and Members are invited to suggest underground trips, either early 1980s and contains a few artefacts from those days, locally in the Peak District or further afield, for inclusion but it also contains quite a few polystyrene “boulders” in a future Meets Programme. Offers to lead Society and timber, dating from some later activity in the mine, mine trips, will also be welcomed. Please contact Paul described below. Some of the group had a bit of fun Chandler by email, phone or in person. playing with these “boulders” during our trip. Please remember to keep checking the PDMHS website The mine was one of the locations used during filming for updates on meets and talks that may have been added of an episode of the first series of the ITV programme after this Newsletter went to print. “Peak Practice”, with Kevin Whately & Amanda Burton. All of the mining walks are highly recommended, details I have got a copy of this particular episode, which was of sites visited can be found in the latest edition of “Lead entitled ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’. Mining in the Peak District” by Rieuwerts and Ford. Paul Chandler If you would like to borrow a lamp & helmet, either for yourself or a guest or guests, then please contact Paul Hidden Earth 2015 Chandler, who has a limited number of lamps, helmets & Hidden Earth 2015, the UK’s annual caving conference, other equipment for a nominal cost, eg a pint at the pub! is being held from the 25th to the 27th of September, For more information please contact:- 2015 at the Churchill Academy, Churchill, near Bristol. Tony 07891 276668 For more details about the venue, programme, travel and Paul 01246 220773 accommodation details, bookings etc. take a look at the Email [email protected] (Please state in the Hidden Earth website: title if the message is for Paul or Tony.) http://hidden-earth.org.uk/index.html Tony Wood Steve Thompson 3 Peak District Mines – Observations HM’; perhaps these now lie behind electrical fittings or and Discoveries – Part 53 the interpretation panel? At Halfway House, the now partially silted short branch Miner’s Graffiti, Speedwell Mine, of the canal into Longcliffe vein, there are ‘J Royse’ Castleton, SK 1392 8274 and ‘RN’ at its end. (‘J Royce’ appears again, with It has long been known that there are good 18th century other initials, in a passage above at the top of a winze, miners’ inscriptions in Speedwell Mine (Rieuwerts accompanied by the dates 1845, 1850 and 1857; the way and Ford 1985; Ford 1991; 2008; Cordingley 1999; to here has now run-in: Phil Wolstenholme pers. comm.). Barnatt and Webb 2004a/b). These include the well- While these inscriptions are done with a pick and are of known Miner’s Toast of 1781, while others comprise late-18th or 19th century date, it is unclear whether they peoples’ initials, occasionally also with a date. Most are done by miners or visitors. They started driving the are associated with the mine canal started in 1771 and level in 1771, but rich ore deposits were not found and probably finished in 1782. A few new miner’s initials they closed the mine in 1794, with only brief periods of have recently been found, as part of a review of the reworking, at a small scale, in 1802-14 and 1844-47. By miner and caver inscriptions in the Cavern, the latter to 1802 there was a visitor guide living on site (Rieuwerts be published separately (Barnatt with Peppit and Webb and Ford 1985) and through the rest of the 19th century in press.). Thus a review of those directly associated until today, the canal and cavern was a tourist attraction with the canal and miner’s upstream route to the Boulder with a fee charged (for examples see Jewitt 1811; Ward Piles are given here. 1827; Adam 1851; Jewitt 1872). Many of the inscriptions are in distinctive 18th century Present: John Barnatt, Richard Shaw, script with serifs and with crossed ‘I’s, which was the Terry Worthington 18th century way of writing a J and the interchangeable Reported: John Barnatt I. Suggestions as to the full names of several of the Acknowledgements: miners who carved their initials have been made previously (Ford 1991; Rieuwerts and Ford 1985). Many thanks to Richard and Terry for helping check initials and to Trevor Ford for comment. The Miner’s Toast is well described elsewhere, but in brief comprises ‘MN Oct 20th 1781’ with ‘JIB’ below References: and ‘A Health to All Mines and Mentainers of Mines’ Adam, W. 1851 Gem of the Peak, or Matlock Bath together with a drawing of a bottle with glass; nearby and its Vicinity (5th ed.). London. there were two crude depictions of boats, one now Barnatt, J. with Peppit, G. and Webb, D. in press. smeared and not clearly visible. Nearby and perhaps Graffiti in Peak District caves and mines: historic added on the same occasion are the initials ‘IB’, record or mindless vandalism. Cave and Karst appearing twice. The Toast inscription was made when Science. the streamway was first entered from the unfinished canal and miners explored upstream as far as it was Barnatt, J. and Webb, D. 2004a T’owd Man in practicable to go. Near here, the entrance to Cliff Speedwell. Descent 181, p. 23. Passage, a short easy climb above the main streamway, Barnatt, J. and Webb, D. 2004b The Speedwell had dry mud on its wall and roof which made an ideal Miner’s Toast Inscriptions. Derbyshire Caver 121, medium for leaving a commemorative inscription. pp. 9-13. Initials carved with a pick into limestone, probably all Cordingley, J. 1999 Inscriptions in Peak and made by miners, are found in various other parts of the Speedwell Caverns – A Bit of Historical Research. mine, mostly in places significant to the operation of the TSG 17. mine. The most frequent are at the top passage to The Ford, T. D. 1991 Graffiti in Speedwell Mine. in: Bung, where water was let out of the canal when it was to Peak and Speedwell Caverns – Explorations and be cleaned. Here there is ‘IR.MR IN 1783 IF’, and also Science. Cave Science 18.1, pp. 39-40. ‘B, JIB, RB, SB, BH, (I)H, JH, JH, (P)H, I, JN, TN, AP, Ford, T. D. 2008 Castleton Caves. Ashbourne: P, GP, JP, FR, ER, HIR, JJR, JT’ with ‘JH’ at the bottom Landmark. of The Bung Hole ladder. In the past ‘GBP and TP’ have Jewitt, A. 1811 History of and Curiosities also been recorded (Rieuwerts and Ford 1985). Further of the Peak. London. upstream, between the Whirlpool where the canal ended and the Boulder Piles, one of the main places where ore Jewitt, L. (ed.) 1872 Black’s Tourist Guide to was worked above, there are ‘IA, MR, BT, IW’. Derbyshire. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. Going out along the canal, in the areas visited by Rieuwerts, J.H. and Ford, T.D. 1985 The Mining tourists, there are also several inscriptions. At the History of the Speedwell Mine or Oakden Level, Bottomless Pit, all on the north wall, these include ‘CT Castleton, Derbyshire. Bulletin of the Peak District 1806’ in a rectangular box, possibly superimposed on Mines Historical Society 9.3, pp 129-170. ‘IT’, ‘CT ?cumt?’, and ‘CE or GE, WSB, JH, IB, GH, Ward, Rev. R. 1827 A Guide to the Peak of JH, CT, EH, RT’. Trevor Ford also recorded ‘TAL, HP, Derbyshire. Birmingham: Ward. 4 Chance Level, Ible Wood, Via Gellia, in Oct. 1843, which was not brought forward to the Derbyshire, SK 254 568 Company reckoning book.’ Recently, while searching for something completely different, a small amount of Following on from the report by John Hicklin in further information was found. In an un-authored note Observations and Discoveries part 51 of the level in Ible written sometime after the mine closed in 1852 it was Wood, further documentary research enables a positive recorded that ‘there was some very fine pyrites got in identification to be made and confirms that the vein was this mine, also a small quantity of Calamine. NB The at work in the pre-gunpowder era. pyrites the miners called Brazil or Cockscomb silver’. Some 17th century records relating to the area are cited The pyrite no doubt came from the toadstone, but in Rieuwerts (2010), one of which is a 1678 reference to whether it was ever sold by the company is not known. a vein being worked in Ible Wood in 1654 that extended Reported: John Barnatt into Lamber Close. Examination of the Ible Tithe Map Reference: and Award (Derbyshire Record Office D2372 A/PI Derbyshire Record Office, Bagshawe collection 14/1) shows that the cluster of fields bearing this name 587/70, Undated 19th century list of mines with notes. are on the range of the vein the level was driven on